Encala (13 page)

“
Do you still plead
not-guilty?”

“
I do.”

“
How so? It seems to me
like you were moments from committing ra…” He hesitated when he saw
Emily flinch, “committing an assault.”

“
I was trying to free her,”
Kyle explained.

“
Free her from
what?”

“
From the Elder, he uses
her. She’s so afraid of him that she can’t feel anything for anyone
else. He also abuses her. I’ve seen bruises on her numerous times,
and it’s all to control her,” Kyle said, ignoring how the council
members whispered to one another.

“
We still don’t see how
that gives you the right to force yourself on her,” Maleth said,
angrily.

“
I agree, that was wrong of
me, but it wasn’t rape… it wouldn’t have gotten that far,” he said,
trying to defend himself.

“
But you had already
undressed her.”

Emily felt her blush rising. She just wanted
to get out of this room. Hoping she could make a clean break, she
stood quickly and lifted the edge of her dress slightly as she ran
to the trial area door. The door guard blocked her way, even when
she tried to push him aside.

Emily spun when she felt a hand on her
shoulder.

“
It’s ok,” Leonid said,
softly. “Come…”

Emily glanced at the Council, and then let
Leonid lead her back to her seat. He returned to the Council area
and smiled at her reassuringly.

“
But you already undressed
her,” Maleth repeated.

“
Mostly, yes.”

“
With her hands
restrained.”

“
Yes, but you have to
understand. I love her, and it’s killing me to see the way he
treats her, like a piece of property. He is incapable of love and I
thought… I thought if she had the chance to break the bond… with
me… I could set her free,” Kyle said, and looked back at
Emily.

“
Did she, at any time,
return your feelings that day?” Maleth asked.

“
She hadn’t
yet.”

“
Yet?”

“
Yet… if she wasn’t so
afraid… of Chevalier, she would have.”

“
We will consider the
accusations against the Elder later… for now we, as a Council,
don’t see how you can justify what you did. Lady Emily clearly
stated she wanted you to stop,” Damon growled.

Leonid stood back up, “You do not deny the
charges of feeding off of her without permission?”

“
No, I do not.” He dropped
his eyes.

“
Was this during the r…
erm… first act?”

He nodded.

“
We understand it had been
a long time since any of you fed, but that still doesn’t excuse
feeding without asking permission.”

“
I had my reasons,” he said
to the Council.

“
They better be good,”
Leonid said.

“
Em isn’t… well, she can’t
be controlled like other mortals… unless… well unless she’s been
weakened by blood loss or if she’s ill.”

“
Do not call her Em, she’s
Lady Emily,” Damon hissed at Kyle.

“
You hoped to weaken her
through blood loss, so you could control her into going along with
your plans?” Maleth asked, shocked.

“
No… if I could control
her, I could make her understand how much better I am for
her.”

“
You wanted her to admit
that the Elder... abuses her, as you say?” Leonid tried to
understand his reasoning.

“
Yes,” Kyle
answered.

“
Why did you stop then?”
Maleth asked.

“
She… used her powers on
me,” Kyle said, again looking at the floor.

“
Then who revived you from
ash?”

“
No one, she just did it
until I fell unconscious.”

“
You can control it that
well, Lady Emily?” Maleth asked, impressed.

Emily nodded.

“
Very well… we call on our
witness,” Leonid interjected after some silence.

Mark stood up.

“
You are representing the
thirteen heku from the island, are you not?” he asked.

“
Yes, I am.”

“
Did you observe signs that
Lady Emily had been attacked?”

“
Yes”

“
How so?”

“
When she came into the
cave, she was afraid, and we saw bite marks on her neck that were
bleeding. Then there was… well she didn’t have a shirt on, she had
a torn shirt held up against her,” Mark said, watching the
Council.

“
Did she tell you what had
happened?”

“
No, she did not. She put
on a new shirt and then took Allen and ran.”

“
Did you follow
her?”

“
No, Sir. She threatened to
turn us to ash if we followed her,” Mark said, giving Emily a
crooked smile.

“
When did Kyle return?”
Leonid continued.

“
Twenty minutes later, he
came in, obviously in pain.”

“
What did he
say?”

“
He wanted us to go find
her,” Mark replied.

“
Did you?”

“
No, we told him we
wouldn’t go find her so he could…” Mark sighed, “Do whatever he
wanted with her.”

“
Is there anything
else?”

“
No, Sir, that is all,”
Mark said, and sat back down.

“
The Council will now
deliberate. Lady Emily, please approach the Council again.” Emily
looked up, then stood, and walked to them.

Maleth leaned over to her, “Dear, do you
wish Elder Chevalier to return or would you rather him stay away?
We still have the accusations that he may be mistreating you.”

“
Please, bring him back,”
she said, adamantly. “I’m not abused.”

“
Are you speaking out of
fear, Child?”

She shook her head, “No, I’m not afraid of
him.”

Maleth nodded and stood as the Council filed
out of the council chambers through the back door. The side door
opened and Chevalier stepped in. Emily ran into his arms and he
wrapped them around her and kissed the top of her head. He watched
as a guard escorted Kyle from the room. Kyle was glaring icily at
the Elder.

“
It’s ok, it’s over,” he
said to Emily.

She nodded and pulled closer to him.

“
Elder?” Mark said from
behind Emily.

Chevalier looked up at him.

“
I think you should know,
Sir. Kyle has accused you of some things the Council will need to
follow up on,” Mark said.

“
What things?” he asked,
surprised.

“
He accused you of abusing
Lady Emily, and using fear to control her,” Mark said,
softly.

“
He what?” Chevalier asked,
shocked.

Emily nodded against his chest.

“
He said he’s seen bruises
on her, left by you,” Mark continued.

Chevalier sighed, “Thank you for telling me.
I can put that to rest soon enough.”

Mark bowed and left the council
chambers.

Emily followed Chevalier up to their room
and he excused Allen’s guards. They quickly left and took up their
positions outside of the door. Emily sat at the table with Allen as
their dinner was delivered. He began to eat, but Emily just pushed
the food around.

“
Not hungry?” Chevalier
asked, putting his hand on her shoulder.

“
He’s my friend,” she
whispered.

“
I know, but he
overstepped.”

She nodded and stood up, “I’m just going to
go to bed.”

Chevalier sat with Allen as he ate, and then
watched Emily crawl into bed and pull the covers up over
herself.

***

Emily felt a hand on her shoulder, “Em, wake
up.”

She sat up in bed and looked at Chevalier,
“What’s wrong?”

“
The Council made a
decision. They need us down there,” he said, handing her jeans and
a t-shirt.

“
I don’t want to go,” she
told him, and put the clothes down on the bed.

“
You have to. They
specifically requested that you return,” he said, pulling the
covers off of her.

Emily sighed and dressed quickly. She didn’t
want to face Kyle again. She didn’t want to know he was sentenced
to death or banishment. She could just picture his withered body
lying in a coffin deep beneath the earth, thinking about her for
hundreds of years. She caught sight of a clock on the way, it was
3:30am.

Chevalier opened the doors to the council
chambers and Emily hesitated before entering. Kyle was already
facing the Council as they sat in their chairs high above him.
Chevalier kissed her forehead and took his spot with the Council.
Emily wasn’t sure where she was supposed to go, so she moved back
against the wall and watched.

“
We do apologize for this
late hour, Lady Emily. It wasn’t until we’d already called to
reconvene that we were reminded that you were probably asleep,”
Maleth said, smiling.

“
It’s ok,” Emily said
softly from the shadows in the back of the room. She stifled a yawn
and saw Leonid wink at her.

“
The Council has decided,
and have all agreed, that you are guilty on all charges,” Maleth
said to Kyle.

Kyle hissed, “Then I demand he be charged
also.” He stared at Chevalier.

“
We will address those
accusations as soon as we are done with you,” Maleth said,
angrily.

“
Then do it… what’s the
punishment?”

Maleth grabbed a piece of paper, “For crimes
against the Elder’s wife, we have sentenced you to life in
prison.”

Emily gasped.

“
Life in prison? Why not
kill me?” he asked, mockingly.

“
We talked about it, but
feel your time is best served thinking about what you have done,
and we are going to set an example of you,” he said,
proudly.

A guard came and hauled Kyle away as he
struggled against the binds. Two more guards appeared and helped
them take Kyle to prison.

“
Lady Emily, please step
forward,” Leonid motioned for her.

Emily stepped out of the shadows and walked
up to toward where Kyle had previously been standing.

“
Any time an accusation is
brought against a member of the Equites, it must be followed up
with an inquisition. You heard the accusations brought against the
Elder by Kyle, did you not?”

“
I did,” she
admitted.

“
Has the Elder ever
purposely hit you?” Maleth asked, glancing quickly at
Chevalier.

“
No”

“
Has he, as accused, ever
left a bruise on you?”

Emily looked at Chevalier and he nodded, “Go
ahead, it’s ok.”

She nodded and sunk her hands into her
pockets.

“
When was the first time?”
Maleth asked her.

“
In Colorado, we’d gotten
into a fight over… well… the coven,” she said, watching the dirt
floor.

“
Where was the
bruise?”

“
My neck.”

“
He choked you?” Maleth
asked, surprised.

Emily didn’t answer.

“
Yes, I did,” Chevalier
said, watching her.

Maleth nodded, “And the next time?”

“
I… I was mad, we’d been
fighting again and…” she shrugged, “I burned him.”

Maleth gasped, “You burned him?”

Emily nodded, “So he choked me.”

“
Again leaving
bruises?”

Emily nodded again.

“
Then the next
time?”

She looked up at Maleth, “That was it.”

“
Elder, do you wish to
speak in your defense?”

“
Nope, no defense,” he
said, casually.

“
Will you step out then for
a moment?” Leonid asked. Chevalier nodded and stepped out of the
chambers, shutting the door behind him.

Emily looked up at the Council.

“
Lady Emily, do you fear
for your life?” Leonid asked, kindly.

“
No”

“
Are you afraid of your
husband?”

“
No”

“
It’s very important that
you tell us. It’s our job to protect you,” Maleth said.

“
I don’t need protected
from Chev, I love him. I don’t know where Kyle got off saying he
controls me, but he doesn’t. I’ve been abused, and I’ve been
controlled before, and it wasn’t by him,” she said, watching
them.

“
You have nothing else to
say? No accusations?”

“
None, I just want tonight
to end, and I want to go back to Chev,” she said, kicking a clump
of dirt on the ground.

“
Very well, Child. You may
go, but we will be watching you. If we feel harm is coming to you,
we will have to act,” Maleth said, and opened the side door for
her.

Emily walked out and went over to Chevalier
as he leaned against the stairs, “How’d that go?”

“
I don’t know. They said
they’ll be watching me,” she explained, and headed up the stairs,
hand-in-hand with Chevalier.

When Emily woke up, she knew what she had to
do, but it would put her in danger and would surely make both her
guards and Chevalier angry. She promised to stay and not slip her
guards, but just this once, she had to get out. She ate breakfast
quickly and got dressed. The Cavalry training was to start at 10am,
so she only had a few hours to execute her plan. Sam took Allen
without question and Emily threw her hair into a pony tail and
walked over to the window. She looked down from the fifth-floor
window.